Vehicle docking facilities, such as warehouses, typically include multiple vehicle docking stations that facilitate the movement of goods between the facility and a vehicle parked at the docking station. Each vehicle docking station can include docking equipment used to improve the safety and efficiency of moving goods between the facility and the vehicle. A vehicle docking station can include, for example, a vehicle restraint used to ensure that the vehicle does not move away from the docking station during loading and unloading, a dock door used to control access into and out of the warehouse, a dock leveler used to provide a bridge or ramp between the vehicle and the facility, a barrier gate to prevent cargo or personnel from falling out of the docking station when the dock door is open, and an inflatable shelter to provide cover between the vehicle and the facility during loading and unloading.
Some vehicle docking facilities use a workflow protocol to help improve safety and efficiency at the vehicle docking stations. For example, such workflow protocols may call for dock personnel to not open a dock door until proper vehicle restraint engagement has been confirmed, or for a dock leveler to not be extended until a dock door has been opened. Such workflow protocols may be guidelines that dock personnel are expected to follow manually, or may be automated, such that a computer system monitoring all of the docking equipment at a particular vehicle docking station prohibits operation of a certain piece of docking equipment until the computer system receives confirmation that another piece of docking equipment has been successfully operated (e.g., the system prevents opening of the dock door until the system receives confirmation that the vehicle restraint has successfully engaged the vehicle parked at the docking station). Descriptions of loading dock workflow protocols and docking equipment are provided in commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/109,603, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0320685 and U.S. Pat. No. 10,081,504, the entirety of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Safety and efficiency issues can arise when dock personnel do not follow workflow protocol guidelines, or when dock personnel override the computer systems put in place to ensure adherence to workflow protocols. While a supervisor's responsibilities will generally include monitoring dock personnel to ensure compliance with a workflow protocol, it is often difficult for a supervisor to monitor all of the vehicle docking stations under his or her supervision at once. Additionally, efficiency within the facility may be improved if the supervisor is able to spend less time monitoring dock personnel and more time attending to other tasks.